Megliola: Triple crown of Red Sox legends go into hall

On Thursday, Roger Clemens was back in town, at Fenway Park's plush EMC outpost, along with Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra, all three of them Red Sox royalty.

By Lenny MegliolaSpecial to the Daily News

BOSTON — Remember Nixon Road, Roger Clemens was asked. The great pitcher’s eyes brightened. Did he remember? Are you kidding?

"It was great living up there," he said, up there being North Framingham where horses graze, farms provide and wide-open spaces were fitting for a good ol’ Texas boy like Clemens.

"I remember picking apples at the farm," said Clemens, probably Hanson’s, at 20 Nixon Road, the closest farm to where Clemens and his family lived during his halcyon days with the Red Sox.

"We loved it there," three of Clemens’ four sons agreed when they heard Nixon Road mentioned. The boys grew up there when their dad whipped through his halcyon days with the Red Sox.

It might have been the happiest baseball years for Clemens, before Dan Duquette thought he was all done, and before the cloud of performance-enhancing drugs derailed his speeding train to Cooperstown.

On Thursday, Clemens was back in town, well, not Framingham, just Fenway Park’s plush EMC outpost, along with Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra, all three of them Red Sox royalty. Which is why they were brought together: to be inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame.

There was a bit of irony here in that Pedro will be a first-ballot Cooperstown entry next season while Clemens, with his 354 astounding wins and shelf glowing seven Cy Young awards, has been, and might always be, kept out of the Hall of Fame without a ticket.

Through that mess, Clemens has admitted to no wrong. "Going into the Red Sox Hall of Fame is great," he said. But no Cooperstown, with all those credentials? "I have my thoughts about that," said Clemens, but chose to keep them to himself. "If it happens, it’ll be great."

But, no regrets if it doesn’t? "Not at all," he said. Would he have changed anything about the past, the way he went about his business of pitching "Nope," came the retort.

Clemens has been down this Q&A before. He’s not going to change his story. Nothing to confess, nothing to lose sleep over. He’s living his post-game life on his terms. Playing golf; watching his four sons play ball and grow up.

Can’t change the Hall of Fame business. Movin’ on. "Doesn’t change my life," he said, and he’s said it many times before, you’d think.

It was good to move on to discuss his Boston days. "Going into the Red Sox Hall of Fame is great," he proclaimed. Great too that it was with Pedro and Nomar.

Joe Castiglione, long-time voice of the Red Sox, was being inducted too. "He told me he announced every one of my 192 wins," said Clemens. "That’s pretty cool."

Sentimentally, Clemens will always hold a special place for Boston, even though it didn’t have a happy ending. "This is where I got started," he said, and "where I got my name."

Rocket.

But when Duquette, the Red Sox general manager, figured "Rocket" had flamed out, Clemens went to Toronto and proved the boss wrong. Clemens went 41-13 with the Blue Jays, 83-42 with the Yankees, 38-18 with the Astros. Only then was he through.

With Clemens in a Yankees uniform and Pedro in a Red Sox one, their meetings were appointment TV and tickets were impossible to find. "There was electricity," said Pedro, "like a heavyweight title fight."

Pedro was a ridiculous 117-37 with the Red Sox. He was flamboyant, the show inside The Show, the little guy the big guys couldn’t hit. It was a task for batters to not just look foolish against him. The day he pitched, said Pedro, was "my day to do art." You should have seen him paint the corners.

Pitching in Fenway reminded Pedro of pitching in the winter leagues south of the border in front of maniacal fans. "The people were right on top of you; they were loud." So Fenway’s roar didn’t faze him a bit. It lifted him.

Both Pedro and Roger were asked about Jon Lester. "I hope he comes back. I’m not happy about him leaving," said Pedro who works for the Red Sox as a special assistant to general manager Ben Cherington. "He’s a workhorse, a role model in the clubhouse. He’s everything you need."

"This was really a good home (for Lester)," said Roger.

Like Clemens, Garciaparra had a hard ending to his Red Sox life. Theo Epstein traded him to the Cubs at the 2004 trading deadline and we know what happened after that. So Nomar missed out on the World Series thrill. The Red Sox gave him a ring anyway. "I wear it occasionally," he said.

"It’s devastating being traded, no doubt about that," said Nomar, part of the Dodgers’ broadcasting crew these days, and living in LA. "But for me (Boston) is my second home. That’s why I retired as a Red Sox. I have a lot of great memories. I loved going out and playing in front of the fans."

He said he was "honored and humbled" to be inducted in the Red Sox Hall of Fame. On Pedro: "He’s the best. The day he was pitching his mentality was second to none. On the field it was like watching him like a fan."

Nomar hit .323 with the Red Sox. With the Cubs, Dodgers and Athletics, he hit .288.

In his productive early years you got the sense that Nomar would play shortstop for the Red Sox his entire career. But he seemed to like it here less as the years passed. He considered the press the same way Richard Nixon did. There was tension, then there was the trade.